The audio mixing technology is a technology for reading, from one or more recording mediums, a primary audio stream containing a primary sound/voice and a secondary audio stream containing a secondary sound/voice, decoding the primary and secondary audio streams respectively, combining the decoding results to generate non-compressed digital audio, and outputting the non-compressed digital audio.
The technology enables a plurality of digital streams constituting a motion picture to be provided via different mediums, and, for example, makes it possible to attach a commentary of the director to the motion picture, increasing freedom in creating variations of one motion picture. The technology therefore enables a lot of variations to be created from one motion picture.
The below-identified document, as a prior art, discloses a technology for reading digital streams from the recording mediums and reproducing the read digital streams.
Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-228656